Charlevoix County is run by elected county commissioners and a mix of elected and appointed department heads.

There is no single office or person running the whole show.

While this is a strength -- voters can hold departments and the county board directly accountable -- it can be a weakness for the same reason: Long range stability and planning might get tossed out the window every two and four years as officials get voted in and voted out.

Planning could be a potential victim of the system in Charlevoix County. The county commission recently halved the county planning department, when it voted to de-fund the $50,000 a year director's position.

After the retirement of long-time planning director Larry Sullivan at the end of September, all planning department duties were allocated to planning assistant Kiersten Stark and GIS (Geographic Information System) coordinator, Brian Kelly.

The new office is GIS and Planning Department.

City and township leaders pleaded with the county board not to do it and the move didn't sit well with at least one of the county planning commissioners.

Not funding the same staffing levels would be "a step backward" for the county, said county planning commissioner Nancy Ferguson. Clerical tasks are very time consuming, she explained, and she believes the director position should be supplemented by an assistant.

The county's move may strengthen GIS, a invaluable service the county is able to provide that the smaller local units of government cannot for detailed planning and zoning process.

This computerized database of layered geography topography, zoning and land use is a critical tool for all the communities in Charlevoix County. Stronger ties between these related function of county planning and county GIS will result in stronger planning components.

Still, we wonder at the two-person office's ability to keep up with requirements. Charlevoix County's remaining planner, Stark, has 10 years experience with the office, a citizen planner certification though Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service and other planning related coursework. She has two college bachelor's degrees -- not in planning-related fields.

She expressed confidence that her office can keep up, but said more planning and zoning review duties will fall upon planning commissioners themselves under the hybrid system.

Statutory duties of the commission include review and recommendations on each of the 15 townships' and the cities' zoning ordinance changes. But more than that, the planning commission must adopt and maintain an ever changing master land use plan, is charged with the county capital improvement plan, county solid waste management plan and, currently, Charlevoix County's recreation plan.

Those documents don't exactly write themselves. They require diligent research, knowledge of quickly changing state rules and regulations, and hours and hours of development.

Take away a professional planner dedicated to those functions and who's left to do that work?

Hired consultants or most likely appointing planning board members -- citizens who more or less volunteer their time. Sure, they get a $50 stipend for a meeting, but these are people with other jobs and regular lives.

Will there be legal ramifications? Will the county have greater exposure to lawsuits over planning issues because lay people wrote the rules?

It's not that the county lacks the money. With a fund balance at the end of 2012 fiscal year ending Sept. 30 estimated at $5.1 million, the money is certainly there.

The county planning commission is keeper of "the big picture" in tracking how all the myriad township and city land use plans and zoning ordinance work together.

Without the proper expertise and manpower, how will the commission keep that picture in focus?